Baltimore County attorneys claim employee union leaders are deceiving residents into signing a petition, and threatened to challenge the document in court if they don’t stop.
Members of the Baltimore County Federation of Public Employees (FPE), a union that represents 911 operators, nurses and sheriff’s deputies, are collecting signatures in support of binding arbitration during labor disputes, which is available only to the county’s police and fire unions. The group needs 10,000 signatures to place the issue on November’s ballot.
But the county attorney said the county has “concrete evidence” that signature collectors are misrepresenting the effect of the proposal by claiming the amendment would benefit teachers.
“In fact, the teachers are the only employees mentioned in the unions’ canned sales pitch,” County Attorney John Beverungen wrote in an Aug. 1 letter to the unions’ counsel. “As you are no doubt aware, the proposed charter amendment would have no effect on teachers since they are Board of Education employees who would not be covered by the amendment.”
The FPE hired Oregon-based Democracy Resources, a progressive signature collection firm, to complete the petition. Company President Ted Blaszak did not return a call for comment, nor did union attorney Keith Zimmerman.
FPE President Jim Miller said he was not yet prepared to make a statement.
“Right now, we don’t know what the facts are totally,” Miller said.
Towson resident Craig DeMallie said a man asked him to sign a petition July 28 at the Barnes & Noble in Towson. The signature collector told him the petition would “help Baltimore County teachers,” according to DeMallie, who said he replied that he doesn’t sign anything unless fully informed on the issue.
“That’s it,” the collector responded, according to DeMallie. “This is to help teachers.”
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